Saturday, February 14, 2015

When I photographed this three weeks ago, I thought that I would post it ages ago. However, life tends to happens and made it impossible to post before now. If you look at my Instagram, you will see what has kept me so busy.

I saw a similar LOVE sign on Pinterest, and thought it would be fun on the tablescape. With work, we have been focusing on #spreadthelocallove campaign. Its a movement we have created to encourage people to support local stores, restaurants, and bloggers by purchasing from them. My work, Gatehouse No. 1, love our locals. We support them weekly by doing treat runs, lunch runs, and of course girls nights out at our favorite hot spots! To see more on it check it out @gatehouseno1 on instagram. Its been fun movement to create with Claire, Stephanie, and I. But it also consumed a large part of our free time and our lives.

I considered using the LOVE sign for the event, but then I decided to go more formal. It's been fun to have up this year, and was really easy to make. Directions are at the bottom of the post. It turned out perfect for my Valentines tablescape, however I photographed this late at night so the exposure isn't the best.

I dipped the champagne glass upside down in water, then rimmed it with gold sprinkles. Makes the perfect Valentines drink.

For Christmas we went to Color Me Mine and painted different pieces. I talked my Mom into doing a floral platter for me for my Kitchen. Pretty impressed for free handing it and finishing it in a hour! So of course I had to decorate the rest of the kitchen to match highlight it.

Mister Moose was decorated as well for the holiday.

Sometimes its all in the details. I have collected all of these items for years. I haven't pulled them out in awhile, and thought it was fun to decorate the kitchen for the lonesome holiday. I mean, any excuse to add more pink to my home is a good enough excuse for me!

The XO sign was very easy to make. I bought some Tacky spray glue, two different colors and sizes of gold glitter and a bottle of gold spray paint. I sprayed the XO both with a layer of metallic gold paint. Once it dried, then I sprayed the X and O with the spray tacky glue and dumped a layer of glitter. I repeated it 3 times, and this is the finished product.

For the LOVE sign, I did the same thing. However, because I couldn't find LOVE cut out in wood. I purchased 4 boards of white foam core. Free handed each letter on the white foam core. Then I cut each letter out with exacto knife. Once each were cut out, I repeated the same process, spray painting each letter. then spray glue, glitter. It was a little sticky when I was done. So i used a aerosol hairspray to seal it when I was finished.

Monday, December 22, 2014

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is going to client's homes and decorating them for the Holidays. This year I was able to go back to all of my favorites, along with a lot of new clients. To say that this was my best year is a understatement.
This home will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the first home that I designed, with the help from my Mother, who is also an Interior Designer. We worked on it during my senior year of college. It was so amazing working on such an incredible home, and being able to be involved in the entire process.
This year, I had to get pictures of Christmas and a few additional pictures of the home, because it maybe the last year I do Christmas in it since it's for sale!

I don't claim to be a photographer. It's a hobby, and something I'm continuing to learn about every day. So please bare with the quality of the photos. I was silly and decided to shoot the home around five pm. I should have come a little earlier. So the coloring is a little off. That being said, no matter how beautiful the photography is, I feel like you really can never experience the beauty of a home until you walk through it. It's the overall experience that makes the home.